Evening everyone,

I'm after a hybrid bike that is good on the road and doesn't take as much effort to pedal as my old mountain bike but can cope with a little off road (nothing major - just forest trails etc). I've come up with a list of 3 possibles:

Trek DS 8.5 2013
Specialized Crosstrail Comp Disc
Boardman MX Race

All have suspension that can be stopped for road riding. Any advice would be appreciated!!

Thanks

Benfen

Depending on how aggressive the tread is on the tires of your current bike, you might just swap them out for something less aggressive for faster, smoother on street performance while giving up very little off road performance.

That being said, my vote is for the Specialized- primarily because I'm not familiar with Boardman and Trek charges a premium price for what you get (at least around here).

FYI,the suspension should only be locked out for short durations,not all the time when you're on the street. The constant tweaking of the locked fork combined with the lack of lubrication destroys the seals.

I've always had a thing for Boardman's, so get that one

Thank you very much for your help everyone! Still undecided on which to get - have been reading the reviews online to try and help - am edging towards the Trek. The tip about the suspension is very useful!

Read online reviews only after you've tried out all three bikes and are still undecided.

Boardman brand does not get shipped to the Importers on the US west coast..
Trek and Specialized are US brands that also ship to other countries ,
all may be made under separate contracts with the same Taiwan based manufacturer.

they do that over there.

the parts list is probably of equal value in total , if the price point of the bikes are the almost the same.

I started my move last summer from mountain bike(it got stolen) to hybrid with a DS 8.3 thinking I needed the suspension with lockout as I would be doing some trail riding mixed with easier on road cycling. My old Spec. rockhopper never had suspension and it seemed attractive.I found what I really wanted was riding on the open road and added one and then another road bike which is all I'm riding these days. I take my road bikes with 25c tires on local trails and they work fine for me although nothing approaching steep or rocky off roading. I'd think about a hybrid with rigid forks as the weight penalty from the front forks pushes my DS to a bit above 30 lbs and the sus. forks that come on the DS series are pretty light duty as well.